1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to systems for providing products to customers. More specifically, the present invention concerns a system to provide a product to a customer in accordance with a game outcome.
2. Description Of The Related Art
Retailers experiment with many types of systems designed to attract customers away from other retailers. Some of these systems attempt to attract customers by injecting excitement into a retail shopping experience.
Sweepstakes are one such system. A retailer conducts a sweepstakes by receiving entries from customers at a retail store, by selecting one or more entries from the received entries and by awarding predetermined prizes to customers from whom the selected entries were received. Accordingly, a sweepstakes is intended to motivate a customer to visit the retail store by presenting a possibility of winning a prize. However, the ability of a sweepstakes to influence a customer""s choice of retail stores is limited because the predetermined prizes are often products in which the customer has little particular interest and because a probability of winning a desirable prize in a sweepstakes open to the public is often perceived to be extremely low. As a result, retailers often conclude that the limited ability of a sweepstakes to attract customers is outweighed by a cost of the awarded prizes.
Other retail systems which attempt to provide excitement, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,521 to Rossides, allow customers to gamble for products. According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,521, a customer purchasing a product submits an additional payment to participate in a game of chance in which a winning outcome results in an award of an associated product to the customer and a losing outcome results in a loss of the payment. However, customers in a shopping environment are usually unwilling to risk losing the payment without receiving any benefit in return. Accordingly, gambling-based systems are limited in their attractiveness to retail customers. Moreover, these systems invoke gambling laws and regulations which present financial and administrative burdens that complicate a retailer""s business to an extent outweighing any additional revenues resulting from the systems.
Therefore, what is needed is a system for injecting excitement into a shopping experience which is more attractive to customers than conventional systems, and which is also more profitable and less cumbersome to retailers.
The present invention addresses the foregoing needs by providing, in one aspect, a system to provide a product which includes reception of a selection of a product from a customer, reception of a fee to play a game, determination of an outcome of the game, provision of the product to the customer if the outcome is a winning outcome, and credit of a portion of the fee to the customer if the outcome is a losing outcome. Such a system is believed to be attractive to a customer because the customer chooses a product for which to play a game, and because a portion of a received fee is credited to the customer if an outcome of the game is a losing outcome. As a result, the customer is able to play for products actually desired and a risk of loss is less than that presented by gambling-based systems. Furthermore, a retailer may control the fee amount and the game outcomes in order to offset any losses resulting from winning outcomes with increased volume and revenue.
In one embodiment of the foregoing aspect, the customer is credited the entire received fee if the outcome is a losing outcome. Such an embodiment increases the attractiveness of the inventive system to customers because a participating customer will either win the product or be no worse off than if the game was not played. Accordingly, a retailer may be willing to practice this embodiment in return for increased customer traffic and customer loyalty.
In other embodiments, the fee is credited to a sale price of the selected product if the outcome is a losing outcome. Again, assuming that the customer intends to buy the product regardless of the game outcome, the customer experiences no loss as a result of playing the game, even if a resulting outcome is a losing outcome. However, in a case that the customer does not purchase the product after playing the game, the retailer earns the fee as an additional revenue source.
In an additional aspect, the selection of the product includes a commitment from the customer to purchase the product. According to this aspect, a retailer will receive a retail profit margin for the sale of the product if the outcome is a losing outcome. As a result, a retailer may be more willing to provide a greater probability of winning outcomes than in an embodiment where the customer does not commit to purchase the product.
In yet another aspect, the game reflects a probability that a winning outcome will result therefrom, which is a first probability if a product selection was received from a first customer and is a second probability if the product selection was received from a second customer. By virtue of these features, provision of products to customers may be tailored so that, for example, loyal customers (e.g. customers registered with a retailer""s frequent shopper program) are more likely to receive winning outcomes than new customers.
The invention also concerns a system in which a sale price of a product is received from a customer, the product is provided to the customer in exchange for the sale price, an outcome of a game is determined, and a portion of the sale price is credited to the customer if the outcome is a winning outcome. This aspect of the invention encourages customers to purchase products in the hope of receiving a credit for a portion of the purchase price. Moreover, a retailer will likely be willing to allow occasional winning outcomes in exchange for increased customer flow resulting from the invention.
In another aspect, the invention includes means for obtaining a selection of a product from a customer, means for obtaining a fee to play a game, means for deciding an outcome of the game, means for transmitting the product to the customer if the outcome is a winning outcome, and means for providing the fee to the customer if the outcome is a losing outcome.
With these and other advantages and features of the invention that will become hereinafter apparent, the nature of the invention may be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description, the appended claims, and to the several drawings attached hereto.